Anti-Israel activists seek to highlight the alleged oppression of Palestinians and draw connections to the experience of African Americans, whom they view as natural allies.
A recent event moderated by Detroit-based Bishop James A. Williams II, presiding prelate of the Churches of the United Kingdom, featured a panel titled “Injustice Everywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere…Including in Palestine.” It featured speakers including Palestinian activist Lexis Dena Zeidan, Joshua Feinstein of Jewish Voice for Peace, Arab American News publisher and editor Osama Siblani, and New Hope Third Baptist Church pastor Quantez Pressly. Sponsored by a center-left advocacy group Michigan UnitedThe event was held at Nardin Park United Methodist Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
Hamas and the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel, which resulted in the death of 1,200 people and the taking of 253 hostages, were not discussed by the panelists. Instead, they saw parallels between Israel and a nefarious United States that “has been a source of instability and destruction around the world,” in Siblani’s words.
“Cycles of oppression”
This insistence on America as almost always wrong was seen in a litany of grievances recited by the editor of Arab American News and his fellow panelists.
“Just look at what we (the Americans) did in Iraq: an unjust and unprovoked war. Killed hundreds of thousands of people,” Siblani accused. “What we did in Afghanistan, we went to fight with the Taliban and came back 20 years later after destroying the country, handing it over to the Taliban. What we did to Syria, what we did to Libya. What we did in Sudan that no one talks about. And what we are doing right now in Gaza.
“Racial oppression in the United States could be a reflection of what we see happening in Gaza,” Williams suggested, while Feinstein of Jewish Voice for Peace, a left-wing anti-Zionist activist organization, offered about the peoples of Gaza. Middle East: “This is the time for us to say that I understand that what is happening reflects what is happening here. But now is the time for us to change the narrative.
Palestinian activist Zeidan worried that “we have money to finance the war but not to finance the poor,” seeing a “continuing cycle of oppression both in America and abroad.”
She insisted: “This country was (created) on the basis of genocide, and that is something we have denied. Additionally, we are a country that was built on the backs of Black people who are now disenfranchised because of the same system they helped put in place for the benefit of the people who perpetuate these cycles of oppression.
Zeidan gave examples of “systems of oppression” that exist in the United States and abroad.
“The Israeli occupying force uses the same tactics against Palestinians that American police use against our same black people here in America. We’re talking about cutting aid across UNWRA but we are not afraid to send aid to Ukraine because one of them is brown and the other is not perceived as brown.”
“These are systems of oppression that we continue to go through here in America and we make sure to push them abroad,” Zeidan insisted, saying the biggest cycle of oppression is this: “We have the right to say that black lives matter. right now, but if you said that during the period of slavery you would have been bombed and it’s the same thing, we are doing it right now for the people who are talking about the genocide that is happening in Gaza and against the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian activist encouraged people “to stand up against systems of oppression because what these systems want to do is pit us against each other and we have a responsibility to act in opposition to the system because This is what builds the country.”
“Start fighting the system together”
Pressly noted the line on the vehicles’ rearview mirror reading “objects are closer than they appear,” saying “There is a symbiotic relationship that exists between oppression here and oppression there.” »
The Baptist pastor drew the parallel: “With the displacement happening in Palestine, we, the black community, know what it means to be pushed out of our neighborhoods… Children being bombed in the Tulsa riots… Another symmetry is the feeling that we are all fighting alone. The violence suffered by black people is evident. But we don’t feel like we have as much support and advocacy on these issues as we need in our community…the latest resonance between the two oppressions has a lot to do with inactive leadership.
Williams asked a follow-up question: “Do you think enough people understand the racial nuances of what’s happening with the war and does that impact how we treat each other here in America? ?
Pressly disagreed: “No, I would say no. There is a lack of understanding and awareness of these realities in our communities.
Troubled, Pressly assessed, “As a black man in this country, we are facing problems right now and when I try to prioritize the limited energies and resources that are out there, it becomes difficult to diffuse them to other communities, issues and causes. and I don’t think we’re the only ones who have encountered these challenges.
Zeidan shared his call for the Palestinian community to stand with the black community.
“You can’t expect people to be with you when you’re not with others, and I think that’s part of our development,” Zeidan suggested. “Part of our development is getting out of this individualistic mindset and we have to start fighting the system together.”
Zeidan claimed that “for every bombing in Gaza, for every child killed, there is someone in this country who is profiting from that death” and does not care “about the children who are currently dying from famine, death, from starvation.”
Siblani characterized the American government, “We can’t say it’s about administration because it’s supposed to be for the people, by the people, by the people. Really ? Does this represent the people? People are not on the same wavelength and it doesn’t come from the people because it comes from the lobbyist, but from those who pay the heaviest and highest price.”
Pressly also questioned the legitimacy of American democracy.
“There is no mechanism for the majority of people to move their leaders,” the Baptist pastor charged, insisting that votes matter is a false narrative and “propaganda.” “All these so-called democracies have influences beyond those where the will and wishes of the people are not taken into account.”
Pressly concluded, speculating that major problems, including world hunger and racism in America, could be solved with a commitment of resources, but that this was not happening despite what he felt was a public desire to do so. TO DO.
“We must fight against this notion of democracy,” said the Detroit pastor. “The way it was presented to us in a narrative is not the way it is actually exploited. »
Video of the entire panel discussion can be viewed below on the Michigan United Facebook page:
